BACK IN SINGAPORE

We arrived back in Singapore in late afternoon and after dropping our bags off, we were again at staying at Hangout, the third different room, we met up again to go into Chinatown where there was a great display to see.  It was the occasion of the Mid Autumn Festival by the River 2012.  Daylight was fading as we walked around and the streets were decorated by hundreds of illuminated lanterns.

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These were decorated by children

 

Above the street display

 Down at the River

We decided it was time to have dinner and as we made our way to a Japanese restaurant we were reminded that there was a little election going on in another part of the world.  You could choose an Obama Burger or Romney Meat Loaf.  I guess we now know which sold more.

Our Japanese restaurant was pretty high tech as you ordered using an iPad and the food arrived by your table in portions carried by a little truck running on a track along the restaurant.

Salmon and Japanese beer

The next day was a work day for David and we went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens and the Orchid Garden.  This was a very hot humid day.  We had been there once before but not to see the orchids.

 And here are the swans

 

A turtle in Swan Lake

Waterfall in the Ginger Garden

 Someone was hungry

 

Looking for nectar

It was the hottest day we had and humid too

A pineapple

There were so many spectacular orchids on view

We met up with David and Sam that evening and had dinner at a food court near the Singapore Flyer.  It was coming up to Robin's birthday and David and Sam had a special present for him.  Singapore has a Boeing flight simulator.  It is a real cockpit of the Boeing 737-800, fully operational and you can "fly" it for as long as your money lasts.  Robin had 90 minutes booked and there were two jump-seats that Ruth and David sat in to watch the performance.  The only thing missing was that the cockpit didn't move at all but otherwise it was the real thing.  You sit with a real experienced pilot and you decide what you would like to do, where you would like to fly.  Having some experience on Microsoft FSX simulator we were able to cut out some of the normal preliminaries as Robin knew his way around the controls.  We started out flying a simple circuit out of Singapore Airport - Changi where we had landed the day before.  Then a flight from Chingi to a nearby airfield, then to Vancouver and a circuit there in poor weather and finally from Heathrow to London City airport and back.  This latter part was the most challenging as London City has a fairly short runway but the plane never crashed!  There was time to use the radio aids and the autopilot and before you know it time is up.  Great fun and very challenging. The hardest part was steering the plane on the taxi ways.  It was very sensitive.  Quite an evening.  Part to the deal was a DVD of the whole time in the simulator.  It plays on the iMac but not on our DVD player because DVDs are country related.  Still working on that little problem.

Back at London Heathrow.  You can see a British Airways plane at the terminal

The following day we went to Sentosa Island which we had visited once before.  It is just of the mainland to the South and is an adventure playground.  Lots of new development since our last visit, a Casino, Universal Studios, a theme park and more.  We walked across to the island and made our way to the highest viewpoint and then to the coast.

 Welcome to Sentosa Island

 On the beach at Sentosa.  You can see how big a shipping port Singapore is from the ships waiting for a berth

On the artificial surfing pool

  

A monorail connects the island to the mainland

We made our way back to Hangout where we packed our bags ready fro an early start to the airport and a flight on Singapore Airlines to China.   The staff at Hangout were always helpful and we came to know quite few.  Perhaps our favourite was the one we called "Button"

Little Miss Button